The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-03-06

country rests upon the sacred dDSerV-
ance of constitutional rights and i'm
memorial privileges. A dangerous in
road upon established rights becomes a
precedent against as well as for US. We
cannot, with impunity, trample upon
the liberties of others, without incur
ring dagger of suffering ourselves.
We cannot substantially deny to the
Mormon the right of trial by jury,
without subjectiDg ourselves to the
danger of arbitrary trial and punish
ment.
When. in 1874, Congress prescribed
that the jurors should be selected, one
half By the probate Judge and the other
half by the clerk of the District
Court, direct sacrifice of the prin-
cipls of trial by jury was made
It IS true that the letter of the law was
followed, that the violation OF the pre-
cedent was disguised under the thin
mask OF legal form; but the law was a
plain and unmistakable sIau ghter Of a
right, described by great lawyer as
one Of the four violated that brought
about the Revolution. Wherein, you
ask, did the Poland law outrage prin-
ciple and precedent It is, you say,
customary in many States that some
designated officer should make up the
jury list, as, for instance, the sheriff. 1t
IS true that said lists are, in many
States, selected; but 1t is equally true
that In number of the principal States
OF the Union, the rule of selection
has been done away with, as repugnant
to the canons Of freedom, and the
far more equitable rule of putting
every qualified person upon the lists,
adapted. This change is in the direc-
tion Of the thought and tendency of the
day, and for Congress to have pre-
scTibed for this Territory the unjust
method of selection, was, under any cir
cumstances, improper. But, and here
is the chief objection, for that body to
have deliberately enacted, in the face
of the well-known division Of parties in
this Territory, that one-halt of the jury
men should be selected by Gentle,
and only one-half by a Mormon, was
an Infamous invasion of the constitu-
tional right of an impartial Jury. All
well, you answer, Congress knows no
distinction between Mormon and GEN
tile, and made no presumption as to the
class of men to be selected.
Why, then, did not Congress entrust
the selection to one man? There can be
but one opinion. Congress made that
law intending it to bring about precisely
what has followed from it. Even If this
be not so, it was their plain duty to
have foreseen the consequence, the
plain consequence, of their law, and to
have carefully, "iealously," guarded
against, encroachment upon right
so sacred. 1t was a violation of
the right, because it destroyed impair
TALLY. 1t destroyed impartiality be-
cause it gave one half of the jurors to
of the population.
1t is obvious to The most superficial,
observer, that feelings run high III the
Territory. There was before the bar of
The Third District Court, last week, a
case between Mormon and a Gentle, |
n which the latter, and his
attorney, made every effort to work
lpon the feelings of the non
Mormon iurymen. Such cases are
always before the courts, and have been
ind will continue to be largely de-
ermined by prejudice, or by those con-
alterations which may come from hon
'st differences of opinion upon facts
'rought more or less properly into
be case. The minority may think it q
plendid law; it certainly is convent
mt one for them. 1t will probably be
Justified on the ground that Mormons
re not law-abiding; but this is the rea
ION that the British refused to trv COL
nists by juries of the neighborhood,
nd why they transported them to
oval communities or to. England for
rial. Is the case in any way different
ere? The right of trial by jury is en-
reached upon in this Territory tor
imilar reason; because the preserys-
ion OF the right would result in
avor OF the majority. And not
My did the Poland law apply
0 civil cases, but also to criminal cases
nd as result, Mormon indicted for
ONE act which appeals to class preiu- :
ice. stands before jury comprising
* of his natural opponents; if, indeed
be panel has not been speedily ex-
austed and his inquisitors, under the
famous practice of Utah Courts, itself !
most gIaring violation of the spirit of
npartiality, are not all Gentiles.
But the chapter OF oppression and
rong was not complete when Poland
assed his bill. Now come the great {
lawyers of the Senate :
nd House, with a measure which nro-